#intellectus

hello everyone! since i’m turning 20 soon, and 2020 is almost ending, i’ve decided to create my own 28 day anti-procrastination challenge. i’ve tried doing challenges on my blog before but really struggled to stay committed. i hope that this time, i can really stick to my plans and goals. i’ve struggled with procrastination my entire life, and i really want to tackle this bad habit and incorporate better habits before i turn 20, and before this year ends. i will be using a mixture of resources i found online for this challenge. the first day of my challenge will be today (nov 24, 2020).

steps for starting the challenge:

1. make a not-to-do list (a list of tasks you will not do, no matter what)
2. make a rewards list
3. sign up for the beat procrastination challenge on: here (this is a 30 day challenge, but i’ll be using this because after 28 days, i should still be using these habits, so there should be no reason why i can’t answer the questions for an extra 2 days)

rules (based off of my challenge tribe, with additional rules i added):

1. review your not-to-do list as soon as you wake up
2. work on your most important task of the day for a minimum of 25 minutes as soon as you start your day (i will be keeping my phone on airplane mode and NOT check my email until after i’ve worked for 25 minutes)
3. give yourself a time limit for each thing you have to do
4. take breaks according to a set time (i’ll be taking a 10 minute break every 50 minutes of work)
5. if you have a distracting thought or random task that you realized you have to do during a work session, write it down and work on it during your break.
6. reward yourself if you get a task done without procrastinating and within the time limit
7. when you have spare time, do what you have to do. do not put it off until the next day.
8. follow the schedule below
9. check in with the challenge tribe daily

schedule:
* modules workbooks are from here 
day 1 -
day 2 - module 1
day 3 -
day 4 - module 2
day 5 -
day 6 - module 3
day 7 - make a check-in post on tumblr (what worked, what didn’t work, how you’ll improve if needed)
day 8 - module 4
day 9 -
day 10 - module 5
day 11 -
day 12 - module 6
day 13 -
day 14 - module 7
day 15 - make a second check-in post
day 16-27 -
day 28 - final check-in post

17th April ~ 12:15

English essay planning & finishing off holiday homework this morning. I’ve started doing that thing where you plan each day on post-its? We’ll see how it goes. Also I’m running low on post-its.

16th April ~ 14:01

Just gotta love spending your easter sunday revising at home… Alone…

15th April ~ 13:50

Staying with family for Easter so learning that Virgil in my Granny’s beautiful living room, also I am l o v i n g OneNote atm it’s so simple and neat

13th April ~ 15:43

I have been away for such a long time. My productivity & motivation have decreased so much, exams are only getting closer & stress levels only building. I have been so unproductive this Easter: back with a passion to make the most of the time I have left: new regime commences with nailing my Latin set texts

7:40am // Gloomy Sunrise - Studygram: @studyingbrains 

Revising early in the morning on the train before my last statistics exam. I really struggled all throughout this module. I’ve learnt a big lesson though; if the first lecture leaves you dumbfounded then know at the end of the module you’ll definitely have learnt something. 

Neuroscientist captures an MRI of a mother and child

Professor Rebecca Saxe (MIT) has taken the first ever MR image of a mother and child. 

“This picture is an MR image of a mother and a child that I made in my lab at MIT. You might see it as sweet and touching… an image of universal love. We can’t see clothes or hairstyles or even skin colour. From what we do see, the biology and the brains, this could be any mother and child or even father and child at any time and place in history; having an experience that any human can recognise.

Or you might see it as disturbing, a reminder that our human bodies are much too fragile as houses for ourselves. MRI’s are usually medical images and often bad news. Each white spot in that picture is a blood vessel that could clog, each tiny fold of those brains could harbour a tumour. The baby’s brain maybe looks particularly vulnerable pressed against the soft thin shell of its skull.

I see those things, universal emotions and frightening fragility but I also see one of the most amazing transformations in biology.”

Quotes have been taken from a TEDx talk given by Professor Saxe explaining the story behind the above picture.